- wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

Why do printers add secret tracking dots?
by Ian Stewart 17 Jun '17

17 Jun '17

Hi, This is new news to me, however it looks like its been known about for years. cheers, Ian. According to this<http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20170607-why-printers-add-secret-tracking-d…> BBC technology article, colour laser printers add yellow dots to each page printed that identify the date and time it was printed and the printers serial number. "At that point, experts began taking a closer look at the document, now publicly available on the web. They discovered something else of interest: yellow dots in a roughly rectangular pattern repeated throughout the page. They were barely visible to the naked eye, but formed a coded design. After some quick analysis, they seemed to reveal the exact date and time that the pages in question were printed: 06:20 on 9 May, 2017 – at least, this is likely to be the time on the printer’s internal clock at that moment. The dots also encode a serial number for the printer." The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) maintained a List of Printers Which Do or Do Not Display Tracking Dots<https://www.eff.org/pages/list-printers-which-do-or-do-not-display-tracking…> ...but "This list is no longer being updated." "(Added 2015) Some of the documents that we previously received through FOIA suggested that all major manufacturers of color laser printers entered a secret agreement with governments to ensure that the output of those printers is forensically traceable. Although we still don't know if this is correct, or how subsequent generations of forensic tracking technologies might work, it is probably safest to assume that all modern color laser printers do include some form of tracking information that associates documents with the printer's serial number. (If any manufacturer wishes to go on record with a statement to the contrary, we'll be happy to publish that here.) (Added 2017) REMINDER: IT APPEARS LIKELY THAT ALL RECENT COMMERCIAL COLOR LASER PRINTERS PRINT SOME KIND OF FORENSIC TRACKING CODES, NOT NECESSARILY USING YELLOW DOTS. THIS IS TRUE WHETHER OR NOT THOSE CODES ARE VISIBLE TO THE EYE AND WHETHER OR NOT THE PRINTER MODELS ARE LISTED HERE. THIS ALSO INCLUDES THE PRINTERS THAT ARE LISTED HERE AS NOT PRODUCING YELLOW DOTS."

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Wi-Fi Alliance Offers Guidance For Builders
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 16 Jun '17

16 Jun '17

The Wi-Fi Alliance has issued its “Home Design Standard”, a set of recommendations that it hopes will see new homes outfitted properly for wireless networking from the beginning <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/06/15/wifi_certified_home_designs/>. Some of the reader comments suggest that UK builders at least, seem to have no clue. But surely even builders’ families must appreciate the value of wi-fi in their own homes nowadays...

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Programmers Who Indent With Spaces Earn More Than Those Using Tabs
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 16 Jun '17

16 Jun '17

According to this report <https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/06/according-to-statist…>, the latest Stack Overflow developer survey shows a wide gap between the earnings of those who use spaces to indent their code, versus those who use tabs. Speaking as someone who moved from tabs to spaces about a decade ago, I don’t understand why the author seems so cut up about this. It makes about as much sense as vi/vim users complaining about Emacs users. (The guy also seems to put Perl and PHP on the same intellectual level, which I think tells you all you need to know about the state of his mental health...) And he forgot to link to the actual survey results, which are here <https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2017>. I can’t see where he got the information about the correlation between tabs/spaces and income--all I can see is that among professional developers, spaces are more popular, whereas among all developers, tabs are more popular.

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Green Party Leaders Don't Want Windows In Munich
by Peter Reutemann 15 Jun '17

15 Jun '17

'Munich spent a lot of time (9 years) and a lot of money in shifting some 15,000 staff to a Linux-based OS. The plan now is to move to Windows 10 by 2021. Munich's Green Party is citing the WannaCry virus as a valid reason not to switch to Windows. "As with many of the biggest attacks, the computers that were mainly hit were running the Windows operating system," the Green Party said in a statement.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/17/06/15/1530224 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Vivaldi 1.10 Released
by Peter Reutemann 15 Jun '17

15 Jun '17

'Vivaldi, the successor to Opera 12.16 (Presto) in spirit, admittedly has a long way to go but continues to steadily mature with the release of version 1.10: Releasing Vivaldi 1.10, we give you the power for making the Start Page more personal than ever before. You're the one who gets to decide how your Start Page looks, feels and performs. We've also added the much-requested ability to dock the Developer Tools. Other new features and improvements include: -Sorting of Downloads in the Side Panel by name, size, date added and date finished, as well as manually. -Toggle image visibility from the View menu or via configurable keyboard shortcut. -Quick Commands improvements for users that like to control everything in their browser from their keyboard. The Quick Commands menu lets users navigate to tabs, find search terms, filter lists of available commands and much more. -Address Bar dropdown list can now exclude bookmarks and typed history. -Controlling new tabs via third-party extensions with additional functionality, such as productivity tools or reminders. ' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/17/06/15/1511257 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Re: [wlug] meeting on the 26th
by William Mckee 15 Jun '17

15 Jun '17

On Jun 15, 2017 9:44 PM, "Peter Reutemann" <fracpete(a)waikato.ac.nz> wrote: Hi everyone Unfortunately, I haven't had any inspirations as to topics for the upcoming meeting on June 26th. Any ideas or suggestions? Any cool software or distro that you'd like to demo? Personally, I've never seen an installation and day-to-day usage of Arch Linux (adding/removing applications, configuring services, etc)... I installed arch linux once on the pi. didnt get further than the login prompt though. its certainly helpful distro, i will be forever grateful for the wiki. i will be away for this meetup up though, mid semester break gives an excuse to get away. Hope you find a topic. cheers, william.

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Firefox 54 Arrives With Multi-Process Support For All Users
by Peter Reutemann 14 Jun '17

14 Jun '17

'Mozilla today launched Firefox 54 for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android. The new version includes the next major phase of multi-process support, which streamlines memory use, improving responsiveness and speed. The Electrolysis project, which is the largest change to Firefox code ever, is live. Firefox now uses up to four processes to run webpage content across all open tabs. This means that complex webpages in one tab have a much lower impact on responsiveness and speed in other tabs, and Firefox finally makes better use of your computer's hardware.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/17/06/13/1720250 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Linux Malware Infects Raspberry Pi Devices And Makes Them Mine Cryptocurrency
by Peter Reutemann 12 Jun '17

12 Jun '17

'If you're a Raspberry Pi user who's never changed the default password of the "pi" user, then heed this warning: change it. A brand new piece of malware has hit the web, called "Linux.MulDrop.14", and it preys on those who haven't secured their devices properly... After scanning for RPis with an open (and default) SSH port, the "pi" user is logged into (if the password is left default), and the password is subsequently changed. After that, the malware installs ZMap and sshpass software, and then it configures itself. The ultimate goal of Linux.MulDrop.14 is to make digital money for someone else, namely the author of the malware, using your Raspberry Pi. ' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/17/06/11/0552231 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Malware Uses Obscure Intel CPU Feature To Steal Data and Avoid Firewalls
by Peter Reutemann 09 Jun '17

09 Jun '17

'Microsoft's security team has come across a malware family that uses Intel's Active Management Technology (AMT) Serial-over-LAN (SOL) interface as a file transfer tool. The problem with Intel AMT SOL is that it's part of Intel's ME, a separate chip inside Intel CPUs that runs its own OS and stays on even when the main CPU is off. Inside Intel's ME, AMT SOL opens a virtual network interface which works even when the PC is turned off. Furthermore, because this virtual network interface runs inside ME, firewalls and security products installed on the main OS won't detected malware using AMT SOL to exfiltrate data. The malware was created and used by a nation-state cyber-espionage unit codenamed PLATINUM, active since 2009, and which has targeted countries around the South China Sea. PLATINUM is by far one of the most sophisticated hacking groups ever discovered. Last year [PDF], the OS maker said the group was installing malware by abusing hotpatching — a mechanism that allows Microsoft to issue updates that tap into active processes and upgrade applications or the operating system without having to reboot the computer. Details about PLATINUM's recent targets and attacks are available in a report [PDF] Microsoft released yesterday.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/17/06/08/1754244 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Is Intel Threatening To Sue Microsoft Over x86-on-ARM?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 09 Jun '17

09 Jun '17

Intel has put out a press release warning anybody working on x86-emulation technology to beware of infringing its patents <https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/06/intel-fires-warning-…>. The article suggests that the timing of this announcement is a warning specifically to Microsoft, and possibly also Qualcomm, over their upcoming release of Windows-10-on-ARM machines. Even if this is so, I’m not sure I agree that “This compatibility makes these ARM-based machines a threat to Intel in a way that Windows RT never was”. The simple fact is that the performance of emulated x86 code on ARM is going to be most politely described as “anaemic”. ARM chips are not the most powerful (they are the most power-efficient), and x86 code is extremely complicated to emulate. Thus, the overheads of the translation layer are going to sap any hope of reasonable speed.

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Internet cameras have hard-coded password that can’t be changed
by Peter Reutemann 08 Jun '17

08 Jun '17

'Security cameras manufactured by China-based Foscam are vulnerable to remote take-over hacks that allow attackers to view video feeds, download stored files, and possibly compromise other devices connected to a local network. That's according to a 12-page report released Wednesday by security firm F-Secure. Researchers at F-Secure documented 18 vulnerabilities that the manufacturer has yet to fix despite being alerted to them several months ago. All of the flaws were confirmed in a camera marketed under the Opticam i5 HD brand. A smaller number of the vulnerabilities were also found in the Foscam C2. The report said the weaknesses are likely to exist in many other camera models Foscam manufactures and sells under other brand names.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/security/2017/06/internet-cameras-expose-private-vi… Not sure whether these cameras are sold here in NZ... Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Ubuntu Works With GNOME To Improve HiDPI Support On Linux Desktop
by Peter Reutemann 07 Jun '17

07 Jun '17

'Canonical is playing host to a 'fractional scaling hackfest' in its Taipei offices this week. Both GNOME developers and Ubuntu developers are in attendance, ready to wrestle with the aim: improve GNOME HiDPI support. Ubuntu's Unity desktop (I'm told, anyhow) plays fairly nice with high DPI monitors because the shell supports fractional scaling (though most apps, I believe, do not). Furthermore, users can tweak some high DPI settings to better suit their display(s). GNOME Shell also supports HiDPI monitors, but has, until now, been a little less flexible about it. "Currently, we only allow to scale windows by integral factors (typically 2). This proves somewhat limiting as there are many systems that are just in between the dpi ranges that are good for scale factor 2, or unscaled," the hackfest page explains.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/17/06/06/2048243 Other links regarding HiDPI: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/linux-hidpi-support-for-gnome-kde-xfce-cinnamo… https://www.maketecheasier.com/best-linux-desktop-environments-for-hidpi-di… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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SGI Desktop Clone Gets A New Version On Fedora
by Peter Reutemann 06 Jun '17

06 Jun '17

'Silicon Graphics workstations used the IRIX Interactive Desktop (formerly called Indigo Magic Desktop) for its IRIX operating system (based on UNIX System V with BSD extensions). "Anyone who remembers working on a SGI machine probably has fond memories of the Magic Desktop for IRIX," remembered one Slashdot reader in 2002. At the time a project called 5Dwm was working on a clone, and its work is still being continued by MaXX Interactive. Today Slashdot reader Daniel Mark shared the news that after "several years and many long nights," the company is announcing a new release for Fedora 25, adding that "more Linux Distributions support will be added over the coming days/weeks." They're calling it "something new and fresh in the Linux Desktop space." The MaXX Desktop is available in two versions, the free Community Edition (CE) which provides basic SGI Desktop experience and the commercially available Professional Edition (PE) that comes with support, CPU and GPU specific optimizations and a full SGI Desktop experience... So there is no surprise here, the MaXX Desktop is a highly tuned Workstation Environment for the Linux x86_64 and ia64 platforms. Multi-core processing, NVidia GPU specific optimizations are among the things that makes the MaXX Desktop so fast, light-weight and stable. ' -- source: https://slashdot.org/story/17/06/04/1535251 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Network Time Protocol Hardened To Protect Users From Spying, Increase Privacy
by Peter Reutemann 05 Jun '17

05 Jun '17

'The Internet Engineering Task Force has taken another small step in protecting everybody's privacy... As the draft proposal explains, the RFCs that define NTP have what amounts to a convenience feature: packets going from client to server have the same set of fields as packets sent from servers to clients... "Populating these fields with accurate information is harmful to privacy of clients because it allows a passive observer to fingerprint clients and track them as they move across networks". The header fields in question are Stratum, Root Delay, Root Dispersion, Reference ID, Reference Timestamp, Origin Timestamp, and Receive Timestamp. The Origin Timestamp and Receive Timestamp offer a handy example or a "particularly severe information leak". Under NTP's spec (RFC 5905), clients copy the server's most recent timestamp into their next request to a server – and that's a boon to a snoop-level watcher. The proposal "proposes backward-compatible updates to the Network Time Protocol to strip unnecessary identifying information from client requests and to improve resilience against blind spoofing of unauthenticated server responses." Specifically, client developers should set those fields to zero.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/17/06/03/0422246 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Ubuntu Touch Mobile OS Now Maintained By UBports
by Peter Reutemann 05 Jun '17

05 Jun '17

'UBports continues to be the leading community project for trying to let Ubuntu Touch live on and evolve under their direction... Among their recent achievements were acquiring more sponsors, all devices that were sold with Ubuntu Touch can now run with UBports' builds, they are working on their own version of Mozilla's AGPS Location Service to replace Canonical's GPS system, the Halium OS platform continues evolving, the Dekko email client is back under development, installation improvements are being worked on, they are still striving for Wayland support, and more. The UBports Patreon page has even raised enough to allow UBports founder Marius Gripsgard to work full-time on what they're calling "a beautiful, free and open-source mobile OS." Their recent community update announced that "we are seeing more activity on Ubuntu Touch than for a very long time, and that is really encouraging."' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/17/06/04/0316204 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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US Supreme Court Victory for the Right to Tinker in Printer Cartridge Case
by Ian Stewart 01 Jun '17

01 Jun '17

"The [US] Supreme Court struck a blow today for your right to own the things you buy, reversing a lower court decision that had given patent owners the power to sue customers who paid in full for a patented item but then used it in a way the patent owner didn't care for. Together with Public Knowledge and R Street, EFF filed an amicus brief at the Supreme Court. We explained that the ability of patent owners to sell products into the stream of commerce while also writing a wishlist of anti-competitive restrictions, would be a disastrous expansion of patent law, hindering competition, innovation, and your freedom to tinker with and repair your own stuff. The Supreme Court agreed, explaining that when a patent owner "chooses to sell an item, that product is no longer within the limits of the monopoly and instead becomes the private individual property of the purchaser, with the rights and benefits that come along with ownership." The Court emphasized that, by default, people have every right to make, sell, and use things. The limited monopoly that the government bestows upon a patent owner is a deviation from the norm of free market competition and ownership of personal property, and is subject to important limits in order to protect the public interest. The Court explained that people who buy things are allowed to use and resell them without being sued under patent and copyright law, and explained that this freedom is necessary for commerce to function. The next logical step will be for courts to recognize that people who buy digital goods are owners of those goods, not mere licensees, and can resell and tinker with their digital goods to the same extent as purchasers of tangible property." See the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) article for more details... https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/05/supreme-court-victory-right-tinker-pr… [https://www.eff.org/files/issues/patents-2.png]<https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/05/supreme-court-victory-right-tinker-pr…> Supreme Court Victory for the Right to Tinker in Printer Cartridge Case<https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/05/supreme-court-victory-right-tinker-pr…> www.eff.org The Supreme Court struck a blow today [PDF] for yo Maybe the 11 remaining TPP countries will ensure that their agreement endorses this ruling ? cheers, Ian

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Car Emissions Cheating: How It’s Done
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 29 May '17

29 May '17

Researchers have been digging through car firmware from Volkswagen and Audi to get to the bottom of the emissions-testing scandal that broke a couple of years ago. Turns out the code was written by Bosch, and important information in the form of “function sheets” (documentation for what the firmware does) was not (officially) forthcoming from that company. But unofficial sources can be found on online forums frequented by vehicle-modding enthusiasts. <https://arstechnica.com/cars/2017/05/volkswagen-bosch-fiat-diesel-emissions…>

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Creative Commons Staff Members Release New Free eBook
by Peter Reutemann 28 May '17

28 May '17

'Creative Commons staff-members Sarah Hinchliff Pearson and Paul Stacey have now published Made With Creative Commons, the awaited book they successfully funded on Kickstarter in 2015. "Made With Creative Commons is a book about sharing," explains the book's description. "It is about sharing textbooks, music, data, art, and more. People, organizations, and businesses all over the world are sharing their work using Creative Commons licenses because they want to encourage the public to reuse their works, to copy them, to modify them... But if they are giving their work away to the public for free, how do they make money? "This is the question this book sets out to answer. There are 24 in-depth examples of different ways to sustain what you do when you share your work. And there are lessons, about how to make money but also about what sharing really looks like -- why we do it and what it can bring to the economy and the world. Full of practical advice and inspiring stories, Made with Creative Commons is a book that will show you what it really means to share." There's free versions in PDF, ePub, and MOBI formats for downloading from the Creative Commons site, and there's also an edit-able version on Google Docs. A small Danish non-profit publisher named Ctrl+Alt+Delete Books is also publishing print copies of the book under a Creative Commons license "to ensure easy sharing," and is making the book available on Amazon or through the publisher's own web site.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/17/05/28/0130259 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Timers In systemd
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 27 May '17

27 May '17

Was referred to this page <https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Systemd> about enabling systemd as the init system in Gentoo. The section on “Timer services” I found particularly useful, as applicable to other distros running systemd: instead of a conventional crontab, you create .timer entries, and corresponding .service descriptions for them to invoke, in your ~/.local/share/systemd/user area. One advantage of this I can see is one less set of user files kept in /var. In fact, do this in conjunction with maildir format for user mail, and you no longer need to have any user files in /var. (That I can think of, anyway...)

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Popularity Contests
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 26 May '17

26 May '17

In the middle of another Phoronix flame war, someone posted links to a couple of interesting pages. What’s your favourite desktop environment? According to this <https://opensource.com/life/15/7/poll-preferred-desktop-environment>, GNOME is number one, with KDE not far behind. One-third of respondents use something else. Arch Linux offers some stats <https://www.archlinux.de/?page=FunStatistics> on popularity of desktop environments and other software among its users. Here GNOME and KDE add up to only about 50%. By the way, it’s clear from the numbers for browsers and text editors in the latter that lots of people use more than one.

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UK Government May Push Anti-Encryption Laws After Election
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 25 May '17

25 May '17

Not too surprising to discover that some parties in the UK might be using the Manchester attack as a pretext to push through laws to ban secure encryption <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/05/25/uk_to_push_antiencryption_laws_aft…>. As if such a ban would have helped uncover a perpetrator who, by all accounts, had already been reported to the authorities multiple times...

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A wormable code-execution bug has lurked in Samba for 7 years. Patch now!
by Peter Reutemann 25 May '17

25 May '17

'Maintainers of the Samba networking utility just patched a critical code-execution vulnerability that could pose a severe threat to users until the fix is widely installed. The seven-year-old flaw, indexed as CVE-2017-7494, can be reliably exploited with just one line of code to execute malicious code, as long as a few conditions are met. Those requirements include vulnerable computers that (a) make file- and printer-sharing port 445 reachable on the Internet, (b) configure shared files to have write privileges, and (c) use known or guessable server paths for those files. When those conditions are satisfied, remote attackers can upload any code of their choosing and cause the server to execute it, possibly with unfettered root privileges depending on the vulnerable platform. "All versions of Samba from 3.5.0 onwards are vulnerable to a remote code execution vulnerability, allowing a malicious client to upload a shared library to a writable share, and then cause the server to load and execute it," Samba maintainers wrote in an advisory published Wednesday. They urged anyone using a vulnerable version to install a patch as soon as possible.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/security/2017/05/a-wormable-code-execution-bug-has-… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Windows switch to Git almost complete: 8, 500 commits and 1, 760 builds each day
by Peter Reutemann 25 May '17

25 May '17

'Back in February, Microsoft made the surprising announcement that the Windows development team was going to move to using the open source Git version control system for Windows development. A little over three months after that first revelation, and about 90 percent of the Windows engineering team has made the switch.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/05/90-of-windows-devs-n… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Malicious Subtitles Threaten VLC, Kodi and Popcorn Time Users, Researchers Warn
by Peter Reutemann 24 May '17

24 May '17

'Millions of people risk having their devices and systems compromised by malicious subtitles, according to a new research published by security firm Check Point. The threat comes from a previously undocumented vulnerability which affects users of popular streaming software, including Kodi, Popcorn-Time, and VLC. Developers of the applications have already applied fixes and in some cases, working on it. From a report: While most subtitle makers do no harm, it appears that those with malicious intent can exploit these popular streaming applications to penetrate the devices and systems of these users. Researchers from Check Point, who uncovered the problem, describe the subtitle 'attack vector' as the most widespread, easily accessed and zero-resistance vulnerability that has been reported in recent years. "By conducting attacks through subtitles, hackers can take complete control over any device running them. From this point on, the attacker can do whatever he wants with the victim's machine, whether it is a PC, a smart TV, or a mobile device," they write.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/17/05/24/1329211 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Testing Windows Software For Vulns Too Slow? Do It On Linux!
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 24 May '17

24 May '17

“Distributed, scalable fuzzing on Windows can be challenging and inefficient. This is especially true for endpoint security products, which use complex interconnected components that span across kernel and user space. This often requires spinning up an entire virtualized Windows environment to fuzz them or collect coverage data.” Porting stuff like Windows antivirus tools to Linux lets Ormandy “run the code I’m testing in minimal containers with very little overhead, and easily scale up testing”. Oh, and “I also think Linux has better tools”. <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/05/24/whats_got_a_vast_attack_service_an…>

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WannaCry Makes an Easy Case For Linux
by Peter Reutemann 23 May '17

23 May '17

'The thing is, WannaCry isn't the first of its kind. In fact, ransomware has been exploiting Windows vulnerabilities for a while. The first known ransomware attack was called "AIDS Trojan" that infected Windows machines back in 1989. This particular ransomware attack switched the autoexec.bat file. This new file counted the amount of times a machine had been booted; when the machine reached a count of 90, all of the filenames on the C drive were encrypted. Windows, of course, isn't the only platform to have been hit by ransomware. In fact, back in 2015, the LinuxEncoder ransomware was discovered. That bit of malicious code, however, only affected servers running the Magento ecommerce solution. The important question here is this: Have their been any ransomware attacks on the Linux desktop? The answer is no. With that in mind, it's pretty easy to draw the conclusion that now would be a great time to start deploying Linux on the desktop. I can already hear the tired arguments. The primary issue: software. I will counter that argument by saying this: Most software has migrated to either Software as a Service (SaaS) or the cloud. The majority of work people do is via a web browser. Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari; with few exceptions, SaaS doesn't care. With that in mind, why would you want your employees and staff using a vulnerable system? [...] Imagine, if you will, you have deployed Linux as a desktop OS for your company and those machines work like champs from the day you set them up to the day the hardware finally fails. Doesn't that sound like a win your company could use? If your employees work primarily with SaaS (through web browsers), then there is zero reason keeping you from making the switch to a more reliable, secure platform.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/17/05/18/1757205 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Check-In Delays At Auckland Airport, Australia And Elsewhere
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 22 May '17

22 May '17

You may have come across this report <http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11860878> about problems with check-in processing at Auckland and Wellington “as a result of a global issue”. This item from The Register <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/05/22/sita_failure_australia/> gives a few more details, mentioning an international hookup called “SITA” which was hit by problems in the UK.

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Disabling Microsoft Telemetry Is Not So Easy
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 22 May '17

22 May '17

Came across a link to this series of tweets <https://twitter.com/m8urnett/status/866353982217699328> detailing a sysadmin’s attempts to block his Windows 10 Enterprise installation from making gratuitous Internet accesses. Seems like the obvious answer--blocking things at your border router--can cause major Windows malfunctions...

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upcoming meeting
by Peter Reutemann 18 May '17

18 May '17

Hi everyone We don't have anything scheduled yet for the upcoming meeting next week. Any ideas? [and apologies if I should have missed your suggestion - I've got too many things going on at the moment...] Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Google Takes Another Shot At Making Android Great On Low-Budget Smartphones
by Peter Reutemann 17 May '17

17 May '17

'At its developer conference, Google unveiled Android Go, a project wherein Google will offer a version of Android that runs swiftly on budget, low-specced smartphones. With the new strategy, Google hopes to further improve the low-budget smartphone ecosystem in developing markets. Android Go will be focused around building a version of Android for phones with less memory, with the System UI and kernel able to run with as little as 512MB of memory. Apps will be optimized for low bandwidth and memory, with a version of Play Store designed for those markets that will highlight these apps. From a report: Another feature of Android Go will be data management. Android Go will let you easily see your data usage, and thanks to carrier integration, it'll also let you top-up with more data right on your device.' -- source: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/17/05/17/202209 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Ubuntu 17.04 review: Don’t call it abandonware, per se
by Peter Reutemann 12 May '17

12 May '17

'Last month, it finally happened. Six years after its tumultuous switch from GNOME 2 to the homegrown Unity desktop, Canonical announced it was abandoning work on Unity. Going forward, the company will switch the default Ubuntu desktop back to GNOME beginning with next year's 18.04 LTS release. This means Canonical is also abandoning the development of the Mir display server and its unified interface of Ubuntu for phones and tablets. The company's vision of "convergence," as Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth termed it, has officially died.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/05/ubuntu-17-04-review-this-is-unitys-… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Ubuntu Arrives in the Windows Store, Suse and Fedora Are Coming To the Windows Subsystem For Linux
by Peter Reutemann 11 May '17

11 May '17

'At its Build developer conference today, Microsoft announced that Ubuntu has arrived in the Windows Store. From a report: The company also revealed that it is working with Fedora and Suse to bring their distributions to the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) in Windows 10. At the conference last year, Microsoft announced plans to bring the Bash shell to Windows. The fruits of that labor was WSL, a compatibility layer for running Linux binary executables (in ELF format) natively on Windows, which arrived with the Windows 10 Anniversary Update released in August 2016. Microsoft also partnered with Canonical to allow Ubuntu tools and utilities to run natively on top of the WSL. By bringing Ubuntu to the Windows Store, the company is now making it even easier for developers to install the tools and run Windows and Linux apps side by side. Working with other Linux firms shows that Microsoft's deal with Canonical was not a one-time affair, but rather part of a long-term investment in the Linux world.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/17/05/11/1535214 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Canonical Founder Says Recent Changes In Ubuntu Were Necessary To Prepare the Company For an IPO
by Peter Reutemann 10 May '17

10 May '17

'Canonical was doing well with Ubuntu and cloud and container-related technologies, such as Juju, LXD, and Metal-as-a-Service (MaaS). In addition, its OpenStack and Kubernetes software stacks, according to Shuttleworth, are growing by leaps and bounds on both the public and private cloud. Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth said "in the last year, Ubuntu cloud growth had been 70 percent on the private cloud and 90 percent on the public cloud." In particular, "Ubuntu has been gaining more customers on the big five public clouds." What hadn't succeeded was Canonical's attempt to make Unity the universal interface for desktops, tablets, and smartphones. Shuttleworth was personally invested in this project, but at day's end, it wasn't getting enough adoption to make it profitable. So, Shuttleworth said with regret, Unity had to be dropped. This move also means Canonical will devote more of its time to "putting the company on the path to a IPO. We must figure out what steps we need to take moving forward." That means focusing on Canonical's most profitable lines. Specifically, "Ubuntu will never die. Ubuntu is the default platform on cloud computing. Juju, MaaS, and OpenStack are nearly unstoppable. We need to work out more of our IoT path. At the same time, we had to cut out those parts that couldn't meet an investors' needs. The immediate work is get all parts of the company profitable."' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/17/05/09/1553255 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Re: [wlug] How Psychology Today Sees Richard Stallman
by rowan schischka 09 May '17

09 May '17

>He is a control freak, and a prophet. He has been right more than once >(the dangers of software patents, pitfalls of online services). But >some of his policy decisions (e.g. the reluctance to allow a plugin >architecture into GCC for fear it would lead to evasion of the GPL) >have, I think, been counterproductive. >But isn?t it grand that Free Software is all about having a choice? >That we can use what he and everybody else working for the FSF has been >responsible for, without necessarily having to subscribe to every tenet >of his philosophy? You can't expect anyone to be 100% correct on everything.

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Re: [wlug] The hijacking flaw that lurked in Intel chips is worse than anyone thought
by rowan schischka 09 May '17

09 May '17

I went through Intel's press release and document on how to detect the exploit. https://downloadmirror.intel.com/26754/eng/Intel-SA-00075%20Mitigation%20Gu… Intel says this to detect: netstat -na | findstr "\<16993\> \<16992\> \<16994\> \<16995\> \<623\> \<664\>" Is that all we can do? just scan for port numbers and throw them into our firewalls?

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Google’s “Fuchsia” smartphone OS dumps Linux, has a wild new UI
by Peter Reutemann 09 May '17

09 May '17

'Google, never one to compete in a market with a single product, is apparently hard at work on a third operating system after Android and Chrome OS. This one is an open source, real-time OS called "Fuchsia." The OS first popped up in August last year, but back then it was just a command line. Now the mysterious project has a crazy new UI we can look at, so let's dive in. Unlike Android and Chrome OS, Fuchsia is not based on Linux—it uses a new, Google-developed microkernel called "Magenta." With Fuchsia, Google would not only be dumping the Linux kernel, but also the GPL: the OS is licensed under a mix of BSD 3 clause, MIT, and Apache 2.0. Dumping Linux might come as a bit of a shock, but the Android ecosystem seems to have no desire to keep up with upstream Linux releases. Even the Google Pixel is still stuck on Linux Kernel 3.18, which was first released at the end of 2014.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/05/googles-fuchsia-smartphone-os-dumps… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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How Psychology Today Sees Richard Stallman
by Peter Reutemann 08 May '17

08 May '17

'After our article about Richard Stallman's new video interview, Slashdot reader silverjacket shared this recent profile from Psychology Today that describes Richard Stallman's quest "to save us from a web of spyware -- and from ourselves." By using proprietary software, Stallman believes, we are forfeiting control of our computers, and thus of our digital lives. In his denunciation of all nonfree software as inherently abusive and unethical, he has alienated many possible allies and followers. But he is not here to make friends. He is here to save us from a software industry he considers predatory in ways we've yet to recognize... for Stallman, moralism is the whole point. If you write or use free software only for practical reasons, you'll stop when it's inconvenient, and freedom will disappear. Stallman collaborator Eben Moglen -- a law professor at Columbia, as well as the FSF's general counsel -- assesses Stallman's legacy by saying "the idea of copyleft and the proposition that social and political freedom can't happen in a society without technological freedom -- those are his long-term meanings. And humanity will be aware of those meanings for centuries, whatever it does about them." The article also includes quotes from Linus Torvalds and Eric S. Raymond -- along with some great artwork. In addition to insisting the reporter refer to Linux as "GNU/Linux," Stallman also required that the article describe free software without using the term open source, a phrase he sees as "a way that people who disagree with me try to cause the ethical issues to be forgotten." And he ultimately got Psychology Today to tell its readers that "Nearly all the software on our phones and computers, as well as on other machines, is nonfree or 'proprietary' software and is riddled with spyware and back doors installed by Apple, Google, Microsoft, and the like."' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/17/05/06/0258204 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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The hijacking flaw that lurked in Intel chips is worse than anyone thought
by Peter Reutemann 08 May '17

08 May '17

'A remote hijacking flaw that lurked in Intel chips for seven years was more severe than many people imagined, because it allowed hackers to remotely gain administrative control over huge fleets of computers without entering a password. This is according to technical analyses published Friday. As Ars reported Monday, the authentication bypass vulnerability resides in a feature known as Active Management Technology. AMT, as it's usually called, allows system administrators to perform a variety of powerful tasks over a remote connection. Among the capabilities: changing the code that boots up computers, accessing the computer's mouse, keyboard, and monitor, loading and executing programs, and remotely powering on computers that are turned off. In short, AMT makes it possible to log into a computer and exercise the same control enjoyed by administrators with physical access. AMT, which is available with many vPro processors, was set up to require a password before it could be remotely accessed over a Web browser interface. But, remarkably, that authentication mechanism can be bypassed by entering any text string—or no text at all. According to a blog post published Friday by Tenable Network Security, the cryptographic hash that the interface's digest access authentication requires to verify someone is authorized to log in can be anything at all, including no string at all.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/security/2017/05/the-hijacking-flaw-that-lurked-in-… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Debian 8.8 Released
by Peter Reutemann 07 May '17

07 May '17

'The Debian Project announced today Debian GNU/Linux 8.8, the most advanced stable version of the Jessie series, which brings corrections for numerous packages and various security flaws discovered and patched since the release of the Debian GNU/Linux 8.7 maintenance update back in mid-January 2017... "This update mainly adds corrections for security problems to the stable release, along with a few adjustments for serious problems. Security advisories were already published separately and are referenced where available," reads today's announcement. "Please note that this update does not constitute a new version of Debian 8 but only updates some of the packages included. There is no need to throw away old 'jessie' CDs or DVDs but only to update via an up-to-date Debian mirror after an installation, to cause any out of date packages to be updated." Debian 8.8 contains more than 150 bug fixes and security updates.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/17/05/06/2243254 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Google Docs phishing problem
by Ian Young 05 May '17

05 May '17

As seen in an ITP weekly update. Spear phishing This one will definitely leave a mark and I suspect we'll be seeing waves from it for years to come. Google Docs have become a default mechanism for sharing and collaborating on single documents. For those of you not in the realm of writing stuff for a living, you possibly don't know about the special circle of hell reserved for those who don't track changes or for the group email that results in 50 different versions of the same document that need to be subsumed into one. Google Docs has meant everyone can work on the one piece at the same time and when they've exhausted their pedantic nit-picking about fonts, Oxford commas or whether Kiwi needs to be upper or lower case (upper case for New Zealanders, lower case for the bird or the dollar) then you can simply print it off and be done. Now some bugger has gone and ruined it for all by releasing a nasty phishing attack which sends out a spam inviting you to edit a Google Doc, then raiding your contacts and spamming all of them with the same message. By now it will have more email addresses than there are grains of sand on Whangapoua beach. Google has rushed out the big guns to take on the phish and says it has managed to shut it down (I haven't seen it at all, so I'm pleased about that) but already the damage will be done. These kinds of attacks simply undermine what makes the internet so useful - the openness of it all. One day soon the whole thing will be locked down (I see the newest version of Windows only allows apps to be installed from Microsoft's own app store) and the value and character that makes the internet what it is will be gone. The Verge - Google Docs users hit with sophisticated phishing attack Wired - Don't Open That Google Doc Unless You're Positive It's Legit CNN - Major phishing attack targets Google Docs users

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Google Releases DIY Open Source Raspberry Pi Voice Kit Hardware
by Peter Reutemann 05 May '17

05 May '17

'Google has decided to take artificial intelligence to the maker community with a new initiative called AIY. This initiative will introduce open source AI projects to the public that makers can leverage in a simple way. Today, Google announces the first-ever AIY project. Called "Voice Kit," it is designed to work with a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B to create a voice-based virtual assistant. Billy Rutledge, Director of AIY Projects for Google, explains, "The first open source reference project is the Voice Kit: instructions to build a Voice User Interface (VUI) that can use cloud services (like the new Google Assistant SDK or Cloud Speech API) or run completely on-device. This project extends the functionality of the most popular single board computer used for digital making -- the Raspberry Pi. The included Voice Hardware Accessory on Top (HAT) contains hardware for audio capture and playback: easy-to-use connectors for the dual mic daughter board and speaker, GPIO pins to connect low-voltage components like micro-servos and sensors, and an optional barrel connector for dedicated power supply. It was designed and tested with the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B."' -- source: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/17/05/04/208240 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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No More FTP At Debian
by Peter Reutemann 04 May '17

04 May '17

'It looks like anonymous FTP is officially on its way out. While many public repositories have deprecated it in favor of HTTP, I was rather surprised to see Debian completely drop it on their public site. In a blog post, the team cited the FTP's lack of support for caching or acceleration, and declining usage as some of the reasons for their decision.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/17/05/04/1731227 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Linux Distro Count
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 03 May '17

03 May '17

I can remember reports from several years ago that distrowatch.com was tracking about 350 different Linux distros. Curious to know what the situation is like now, I went to their home page a few minutes ago, and counted the number of “<option ...>” entries in the “Select Distribution” popup menu at the top, and got 290. This figure also includes a few non-Linux OSes. But even so, I think it’s fair to say the sheer variety of Linux distros has scarcely abated over the last decade.

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Linux Kernel 4.11 Officially Released
by Peter Reutemann 02 May '17

02 May '17

'Linux kernel 4.11 has been in development for the past two months, since very early March, when the first Release Candidate arrived for public testing. Eight RCs later, we're now able to download and compile the final release of Linux 4.11 on our favorite GNU/Linux distributions and enjoy its new features. Prominent ones include scalable swapping for SSDs, a brand new perf ftrace tool, support for OPAL drives, support for the SMC-R (Shared Memory Communications-RDMA) protocol, journalling support for MD RAID5, all new statx() system call to replace stat(2), and persistent scrollback buffers for VGA consoles... The Linux 4.11 kernel also introduces initial support for Intel Gemini Lake chips, which is an Atom-based, low-cost computer processor family developed using Intel's 14-nanometer technology, and better power management for AMD Radeon GPUs when the AMDGPU open-source graphics driver is used.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/17/05/01/0534253 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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UEFI Secure Boot Booted From Debian 9 'Stretch'
by Peter Reutemann 02 May '17

02 May '17

'In a release update from last week, release team member Jonathan Wiltshire wrote that "At a recent team meeting, we decided that support for Secure Boot in the forthcoming Debian 9 'stretch' would no longer be a blocker to release. The likely, although not certain outcome is that stretch will not have Secure Boot support." "We appreciate that this will be a disappointment to many users and developers," he continued, "However, we need to balance that with the limited time available for the volunteer teams working on this feature, and the risk of bugs being introduced through rushed development." The decision not to offer Secure Boot support at release leaves Debian behind Red Hat and Suse, making it the only one of Linux's three main branches not to support the heir-to-BIOS and the many security enhancements it offers.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/17/05/01/1452209 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Intel Patches Remote Execution Hole That's Been Hidden In Its Chips Since 2008
by Peter Reutemann 02 May '17

02 May '17

'Intel processor chipsets have, for roughly the past nine years, harbored a security flaw that can be exploited to remotely control and infect vulnerable systems with virtually undetectable spyware and other malicious code. Specifically, the bug is in Intel's Active Management Technology (AMT), Standard Manageability (ISM) and Small Business Technology (SBT) firmware versions 6 to 11.6. According to Chipzilla, the security hole allows "an unprivileged attacker to gain control of the manageability features provided by these products." That means hackers exploiting the flaw can silently snoop on a vulnerable machine's users, make changes to files and read them, install rootkits and other malware, and so on. This is possible across the network, or with local access. These management features have been available in various Intel chipsets for years, starting with the Nehalem Core i7 in 2008, all the way up to Kaby Lake Core parts in 2017. According to Intel today, this critical security vulnerability, labeled CVE-2017-5689, was found and reported in March by Maksim Malyutin at Embedi. To get the patch to close the hole, you'll have to pester your machine's manufacturer for a firmware update, or try the mitigations here. These updates are hoped to arrive within the next few weeks.' -- source: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/17/05/01/228211 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Richard Stallman Interviewed By Bryan Lunduke
by Peter Reutemann 26 Apr '17

26 Apr '17

'Many Slashdot readers know Bryan Lunduke as the creator of the humorous "Linux Sucks" presentations at the annual Southern California Linux Exposition. He's now also a member of the OpenSUSE project board and an all-around open source guy. (In September, he released every one of his books, videos and comics under a Creative Commons license, while his Patreon page offers a tip jar and premiums for monthly patrons). But now he's also got a new "daily computing/nerd show" on YouTube, and last week -- using nothing but free software -- he interviewed the 64-year-old founder of the Free Software Foundation, Richard Stallman. "We talk about everything from the W3C's stance on DRM to opinions on the movie Galaxy Quest," Lunduke explains in the show's notes.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/17/04/24/0738250 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Systemd-Free Devuan Announces Its First Stable Release Candidate 'Jessie' 1.0.0
by Peter Reutemann 26 Apr '17

26 Apr '17

' Devuan 1.0.0-RC is announced, following its beta 2 release last year. The Debian fork that spawned over systemd controversy is reaching stability and plans long-term support. Devuan deploys an innovative continuous integration setup: with fallback on Debian packages, it overlays its own modifications and then uses the merged source repository to ship images for 11 ARM targets, a desktop and minimal live, vagrant and qemu virtual machines and the classic installer isos. The release announcement contains several links to projects that have already adopted this distribution as a base OS. "Dear Init Freedom Lovers," begins the announcement, "Once again the Veteran Unix Admins salute you!" It points out that Devuan "can be adopted as a flawless upgrade path from both Debian Wheezy and Jessie. This is a main goal for the Devuan Jessie stable release and has proven to be a very stable operation every time it has been performed. "' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/17/04/22/1822216 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Anbox Can Run Android Apps Natively On Linux (In A Container)
by Peter Reutemann 26 Apr '17

26 Apr '17

'Canonical engineer Simon Fels has publicly released an Alpha version of Anbox. Similar to the method employed for Android apps on ChromeOS, Anbox runs an entire Android system (7.1.1 at present) in an LXC container. Developed over the last year and a half, the software promises to seamlessly bring performant Android apps to the Linux desktop. After installing Anbox (based on Android 7.1.1) and starting Anbox Application Manager, ten apps are available: Calculator, Calendar, Clock, Contacts, Email, Files, Gallery, Music, Settings, and WebView. Apps run in separate resizeable windows. Additional apps (ARM-native binaries are excluded) can be installed via adb. Installation currently is only supported on a few Linux distributions able to install snaps. Contributions are welcome on Github. In a blog post Simon describes it as "a side project" that he's worked on for over a year and a half. "There were quite a few problems to solve on the way to a really working implementation but it is now in a state that it makes sense to share it with a wider audience."' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/17/04/22/207253 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Linux PC Maker System76 Plans To Design And Manufacture Its Own Hardware
by Peter Reutemann 26 Apr '17

26 Apr '17

'System76 is one of only a handful of PC vendors that exclusively sells computers with Linux-based software. Up until now, that's meant the company has chosen hardware that it could guarantee would work well with custom firmware and the Ubuntu Linux operating system... Starting in 2018 though, you may be able to buy a System76 computer that was designed and built in-house... CAD files for System76 computers will be open source, allowing anyone with the appropriate skills and equipment to build or modify their own cases based on the company's designs. "We're prototyping with acrylic and moving to metal soon," the company says in a blog post, adding "Our first in-house designed and manufactured desktops will ship next year. Laptops are more complex and will follow much later."' -- source: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/17/04/23/0325234 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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